Dillan sighed softly when he walked downstairs, his brown hair nearly combined. The uniform he wore was nice and ironed as he grabbed his car keys, getting ready for a long day at the restaurant he worked in.
"Dillan!" A rough and feminine voice called out to him. "When are you going to fix the gas line?"
"When I get home from work Alyssa." He called back, smiling softly as a short African woman with a bloated belly walked into the living room. She wore a simple pair of jeans and a hoodie with Bonnie and Freddy from five nights at Freddy's. "How's the baby?" He asked, rubbing her stomach.
"A pain in my ass." She said with a chuckle. "And I know you've wanted kids for years now but come on. Nothing's going to happen to us."
Dillan smiles softly, as a child he hasn't had many friends and because of his weight no girls wanted to talk to him. Then he met Alyssa However, even though she was rough and tough Dillan had always seen her for who she was. A kind, gentle person who can kick anyone's ass with ease. When the two started dating he felt whole and complete, and now that she was having his child, he couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to them. He already couldn’t imagine something happening to his nieces, siblings, or parents. They had always been there for him when everyone else wasn't, they were his entire world. "I know, I'm just a worry wart." He said with a chuckle.
Alyssa smirked and poked his nose "I know Ya dork, that's why I love you. Just remember to fix the gas line when you get home, don't forget your family is coming."
Dillan nodded with a smile, kissing her gently before walking out the door with her standing on the pouch as two young girls ran up to him. "Uncle Dillan!" They shouted happily, hugging him tightly.
"Paige, Abby!" He said hugging and spinning them with a wide smile.
"Merry Christmas." A tall man with similar brown hair to Dillan spoke up, walking up to him.
"Hey Sub, Merry Christmas." Dillan said smiling.
"You're not going to work, are you? On Christmas Eve?" Sebastion asked, frowning as three women and an elderly man walked up to them.
"Sadly yeah, being a manager at McDonald's is a busy job." Dillan said with a small smile. "I'll be home by ten."
"Alright, stay safe honey." The older woman with the elderly man said with a smile.
"I will mom." Dillan said smiling. "Oh Larissa, could you help Alyssa with the food? She's getting pretty far in her pregnancy and-"
"I guess." The medium sized woman with long light brown hair said with a smile.
"Thanks sis, see you guys later! Merry Christmas dad!" He said running to his light blue beetle and driving off. Only for an explosion to engulf his house, making him stare in shock and despair at the burning building before he shakily got out of his car and walked towards his home.
The young man fell to his knees, tears in his eyes as he noticed someone on the ground. He ran over and wrapped his arms around his now burning and injured fiancé's Alyssa, tears falling from his face. "A-Alyssa… y-you'll be o-ok…" he said, looking over her body. "Y-you have to be ok…"
He felt her hand touch his face as he cried, gently holding her hand as he looked at her. "T-the g-gas…." She started weakly, making his eyes widen. "D-don't… cry, i-it's-not… f-fault…" she said before going limp in his arms. Minutes later, Firefighters and ambulances arrived, crying out in despair and sadness Dillan's voice was drowned out by thunder echoing through the town as rain fell onto the land.
One of the paramedics tries to remove Dillan from the scene as the other paramedics and firefighters work on the other bodies, digging through the house to find anyone else. “Sir, you need to let us work. I know this is horrible, but you need to calm down and let us do our jobs.”
"Leave me alone! This is all my fault!" Dillan cried, holding his arms to himself as he cried over Alyssa's body. "M-my fiancé… and our child…"
The paramedic frowns but keeps trying to pull him away. “There may still be a chance, but you need to let us work! You being here, will just get in our way and waste our time. There's also a chance that there could be another explosion.”
Dillan slowly kisses Alyssa's head, before begrudgingly moving over to the ambulance where the paramedic wrapped a blanket around him. The young man stared at the fire and brimstone that was his house, tears escaping his eyes as he saw his niece's young bodies as he started depressingly humming merry Christmas.
An officer walks over to Dillan and looks down at him. “Sir, I know this is a horrible time, but I need your statement.”
"It was a gas line," Dillan said brokenly. "I was supposed to fix it… but I kept putting it off because of work… I was leaving a-and my family just got here… m-my Fiancé was pregnant… i-i... I killed them…"
The cop wrote it all down and sighed before placing a hand on his shoulder. “Listen son, I've been on the force for a long time, and I've seen it all, I can tell you're not acting and that this all was a pure accident. You did not kill them; do you hear me? You did not kill them.”
"Yes, I did!" Dillan shouted tears flowing from his eyes. "She's been asking me for months to fix it! I kept procrastinating and doing other things! It's all my fault! It was my job to protect her… and I failed…." He sobbed brokenly.
The cop sighs and pats Dillan’s back. “Kid, I know you are blaming yourself for this, but take it from me. You couldn’t have known this was going to happen. I went through something similar years ago. I used to have a son and I would always keep my gun in my bedroom drawer, one day he found it and he accidentally shot himself. I blame myself even today, but I know that I can't let my guilt destroy me, because it was an accident.”
Dillan whipped his tears, nodding softly. One of the paramedics walks up to Dillan with a sorrowful look on their face. “Sir, I am sorry to inform you, you are the only survivor.”
Dillan's eyes widened as he stared at the floor in silence, tears running down his face. “I’m sorry, y-you will have to come to the morgue to identify the bodies.” the nervous paramedic said.
Dillan nods once. "I understand…" They nodded slowly and walked away.
Three long, painful months passed after the explosion of Dillan's home. Many friends and family had come to the funerals to give their condolences, not that it helped him feel better. Snow had begun to fall gently in the cool mornings of the first day of March, as Dillan went through a routine of waking up in his new one-person apartment, eating and watching TV, before taking a bath.
Dillan slowly took the toaster from his kitchen into the bathroom, looking down at the water in his tub as he sank into the water and plugged the toaster in. "I'm coming home Alyssa…" he said, raising the toaster above his head.
“Now, now, would she really want you to do that?” A familiar voice of a man was heard, shocking Dillan. When he looked to see who it was, he saw something impossible. There in his bathroom was a man with brown hair, green safety goggles and a white lab coat. He looked at his pocket watch. “Oh, dear dreadfully sorry I'm a bit late, but still on time.”
Dillan dropped the toaster, making it slam onto his head hard, before it clanked to the floor. Dillan's eyes stuck on the man as he slowly crept out of the water, reaching out and poking the man's shoulder. "Y-you're real?"
The man chuckles and closes his pocket watch. “About as real as anything else young man.” He then lost his smile and put a hand on Dillan's shoulder. “I'm terribly sorry about your loss.”
Dillan's eyes filled with tears as he looked down and to the side. "You being here can only mean that their deaths were meant to happen, but why?" He asked brokenly as he looked at the man. "Tell me professor, why would they have to lose their lives and I didn't? It was my job to change the gas line, why did they die for my mistake?"
Professor Paradox sighs sadly and keeps his hand on Dillan's shoulder. “I can’t tell you why they died, but I can give you an opportunity. Right now, your timeline is…as a friend would say wibbly wobbly.”
Dillan dryly laughs. "I've always believed in the multiverse and omniverse, kind of a shitty time to learn I was right…" He said, looking up at Paradox. "What kind of opportunity?"
He reaches into his lab coat. “A chance to have a new life, in a new world, make new friends, and perhaps do some good.” He pulls out a box with a blue hourglass on it. “After all, every world needs a hero, right?”
Dillan looks at the box with a gulp, taking it gently out of Paradox's hands. "A… hero? Why me?"
Paradox hums a bit before saying. “Sometimes a hero needs to know the responsibility that comes with his power, other times he needs to learn humility in the act of greatness, and other times they need to know the pain of loss, so they can protect others from that pain.” He smiles at Dillan and takes a step back. “This is your choice, young man. You can put that on and get a new start, or…” He looks over at the toaster and tub.
Dillan breathed out slowly as he removed the lid to the box, his eyes growing wide as he slowly removed a blue ultimatrix with gold trimmings. "A-a dimension twenty-three ultimatrix? T-these exist?"
“That is the only one, if you want to learn more about it, you could always ask Az. Oops spoilers.” Paradox said before chuckling, he then checks his watch and frowns. “Oh dear, I am almost out of time.”
Dillan looked down at the ultimatrix, and smiled softly. "Thank you, Paradox." He said, going into his bedroom.
“Not a problem young man, I won’t spoil too much but you will find the world I will send you too slightly familiar.” Paradox said with a teasing smirk.
Dillan raised an eyebrow as he came back with a small book bag, full of small things that had survived the fire. "Well… I suppose that's good." He said, looking down at the ultimatrix, before slowly putting it on his left wrist. "Welp, as a famous man once said." He said holding up the ultimatrix as it began to glow bright. "It's hero time!"
Dillan slams his hand down onto the ultimatrix and there is a blinding blue flash, before he is gone. “Farewell young Dillan, your adventure is just starting but you have many great things ahead of you.” Paradox said before checking his watch and walking through a doorway disappearing from that world.
The young boy gasped with a start as he stared up at a gray snow filled sky as the white flecks of frozen water gently fell from the endless void above him. With multiple blinks of his eyes Dillan slowly stood up, his book bag on the ground next to him as he looked around in confusion. "Alright… he said it would be familiar to me." Dillan said, picking up his bag as he slowly began walking to a large mountain with lights that glowed in the dark ending sky.
"H-help… s-somepony…" A low weak voice called out in the snowy feels as Dillan glanced around.
"Hello?" He called out. "Where are you?"
“H-help…H-help…u-us..” The voice called out.
Dillan looked back and forth quickly, stepping forward a bit before, he yelled. "I can't see you!"
There is a faint green glow coming from nearby. “S-some-pony h-help.”
Dillan paused for a moment at the frazing of the sentence, before quickly going over to the green light and digging in the snow. "Don't worry I'll help you!"
When he gets close enough, he sees three small ponies huddled together shivering from the cold. There was a yellow one with a red bow, an orange one with purple mane, tail, and small wings, and a white one with purple and pink mane and a glowing horn.
"Oh… crap." Dillan said, his eyes widening at the sight before him. "Welp… my life is going to become insane."